May 2011

May 15, 2011

On Tuesday 5/10, my wife and I made the trek from the DFW area to Fayetteville, AR to see the Dali Lama, a rare and remarkable experience.

Following are photos and descriptions:

(Story and photos copyright by Stephen Levine.. all rights reserved)

I: Morning Session:

The first session, where we sat in the balcony consisted of a roundtable shared between the Dali Lama and two other distinctive individuals: Sister Helen Prejean and Professor Vincent Harding.

The Morning theme was "Turning Swords into Ploughshares: The Many Paths of Nonviolence".

Sister Helen wrote the book "Dead Man Walking" which turned to a movie by the same name. She moved from an upper class neighborhood into the urban slum district of New Orleans and completely gave her life to end the death penalty. Her own life transformend when she met with both the perpretrator and victim's family of a murder and counseled each.

Professor Vincent began his nonviolent participation with the Civil Rights movement in 1957 and worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King.

Here the Dali Lama first enters the stage. The Conference takes place in the stadium At the University of Arkansas & the entire stadium is packed.

Sister Helen Prejean and the personal translator for "His Holiness"join him onstage.

Here His Holiness and translator listen closely during conversation.

Another shot of the Dali Lama, complete with visor and sunglasses to keep out glare.

An even better screen shot of The Dali Lama. It was truly awesome to see this spiritual leader, who spoke eloquently yet to the point and sometimes shared much humor.

His Holiness listens closely as Sister Helen Prejean shares her life's work and story. I found her story was quite amazing to hear..and felt much awe as I listened.

Here is a good screen shot of Professor VIncent Harding as he shared his story as well as humor. I found him to be compelling as well quite humorous during his talk. Among other major accomplishments, he founded the Veterans of Hope Project, which he currently directs. He is a major spokesperson for non-violence.

Before each Conference section, photos and quotes related to Non-violence flashed on the big screens.

This quote from Mahatma Gandhi says "Nonviolence is not a garment to put on and off at will. It's seat is in the heart and it must be an inseperable part of our very being"

This quote from Martin Luther King says: "We still have a choice today: Non-violent coexistance or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action."

This quote from Sister Helen Prejean says: "Better to try to help ten real hurting people, or nine or one-than to be overwhelmed and withdraw and do nothing."

This quote from the Dali Lama says: "Today in such an interdependent world, the concept of war seems anachronistic.. stemming from outmoded attitudes".

This quote from Professor Vincent Harding states: "Everywhere in America, there is a deep often unarticulated fear that the voilence of our culture is out of hand and that our children may be among its most vulnerable victims."

II: Afternoon Session and a Miracle:

When we purchased tickets to the Conference back in March, we thought that the tickets covered both sessions. However once in the Stadium, we were told that the tickets only covered the morning session and that the afternoon session was sold out. Needless to say we were both very surprised and rather miffed, since there was no communication of that sort when we ordered the tickets. I talked with the Will Call people and discussed this issue briefly; they told us to come back later.

When we returned after lunch, they handed a pair of tickets to us, saying that they "found a pair for us". On top of that, when we looked at the tickets, we discovered that they were floor tickets.. much better than the general admission tickets that were made available for purchase in the first place. In addition, there was an additional fee for the 2nd session and we got the tickets for free! What a miracle! What joy!

The University of Arkansas has many amazing people working there, and here is one. He is a professor who has devoted his life and his mission to nonviolence. In addition, he started the TEXT program, a wonderful program that trains 15 to 20 students each year to come to India and interview native Tibetans who were exiled from Tibet in 1959 due to the Chineese occupation and genocide. The purpose of this project which stands for "Tibetans in Exile Today" is to listen to the stories of the exiles and log their vivid memories of traditional Tibetan culture for the purpose of forever preserving it.

An additional element of this project is to learn what the Tibetans have to teach us about "the fundamentals of happiness, inner peace and how these qualities when properly nurtured can have a profound impact upon the society that we envision and build.".

Here the Professor is introducing the afternoon session.

Here, the Chancellor of the University introduces His Holiness. One fascinating thing I learned is that it took 2.5 years just to receive a reply from the Dali Lama after they sent an email to him. Then an additional 3 years for him to come and speak.

In 2006, they brought one of the Dali Lama's personal students to the U.of Arkansas, Geshe Dorjee who now teaches there as well as runs a meditation center in Fayetteville.

Here the Dali Lama and three major officials from the University enter the stage in preparation of His Holiness receiving an honorary degree.

Screen and stage shot of the Dali Lama..

Here His Holiness speaks, his translator along side. There were many interesting principles that he spoke of that included:

1) An important distinction between thought, motive and action;

2) Regardless of where individuals stand on issues, we all have one thing in common- everyone seeks happiness;

3) When faced with severe oppression, sometimes we need to make an action, not only for the better of the greater good but also for the betterment of the oppressor to stop them from accumulating further karma;

4) Everyone in all walks of life has problems. That is the nature of life itself. Our goal is to relax and through the power of the human intellect combined with the power of the heart allow them to resolve non-violently;

5) Happiness can be found in the sensations of the outer world, activities, events, etc.. but lasting happiness comes from being happiness from within.

6) In response to the death of Bin Laden, he stated that you can kill a leader but hate remains in the heart of the people. We must strive to address the hate at its source.

He also gave humorous personal stories of holding down the back of a Queen's dress as it blew in the wind during a formal presentation, and the story of how he taught himself to drive and tried to cover up his cracked headlight from his first renegade adventure.

Despite my having a lack of sleep, the high that I experienced from this Conference and the once in lifetime chance to see the Dali Lama was as if I had enjoyed a full night of deep peaceful rest.

May 08, 2011

Our neighborhood trees are demonstrating the power of affirmative prayer

April's post addresses the spiritual lesson of blossoming forth despite a current lack of evidence of actual fulfillment - either present or future.

Mother Nature has brought this lesson full circle. In March and early April, our trees blossomed prolifically as if luscious Spring rains had already come - -yet we were in the middle of a significant drought. In addition, we had no evidence that the drought would be broken anytime soon.

Within days from when I posted the article through May 2nd, we had six rain events here in the neighborhood.

Each rain event brought us approximately one inch of rainfall. In addition, prolific lightning activity with the rains fixed nitrogen in the air, transforming it to a dissolvable form that further fertilized the soil.

Our trees who faithfully blossomed forth before the rains came, now radiate super lushness, richness and greenness shimmering with wealth and visible life force.

In the Unity of Christianity tradition, it is said that the best way to pray is to give thanks in advance for that which has already occurred, even though at present not one piece of evidence exists to demonstrate that it indeed has.

This Spring, our trees have demonstrated this process nicely.

This is our lawn. It's done this with utterly no fertilizer, except for Mother Natures.